In mobile radio communications, service providers sometimes choose to modify the provision of one or more services based on geographic location. One example is a home zone service where a mobile phone user may receive a discounted tariff when making calls from the vicinity of his or her home. Various systems and methods for defining geographic zones and monitoring the location of mobile radio terminals with respect to these zones currently exist.
A common characteristic of these methods is that the definition of the zone was typically derived at service initiation. While additional methods may exist for making subsequent adjustments to the zone definition, these adjustments are generally in response to either a requirement to change the zone area or else to accommodate changes in the configuration of the radio network.
While these methods may enable zones to be defined and monitored in a variety of radio conditions, there are some radio conditions which can degrade the zone performance. In some of these instances, a common solution is to expand the zone definitions to accommodate these radio conditions. However, this expansion may result in a larger zone size which in many cases is undesirable.
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide systems and methods for using radio measurements collected during the ongoing monitoring of the zone to refine the zone definition, thereby preserving an acceptable zone reliability with minimal compromise in increased zone size. Embodiments of the present disclosure provide systems and methods for using radio measurements collected to create and refine the zone definition on an ongoing basis. The limitations described in the previous paragraphs and other limitations can be overcome using systems, methods and devices in which radio measurements collected during the ongoing monitoring of the zone can be used to create and refine the zone definition on an ongoing basis. For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a location based systems, methods and devices that can either define or refine the zone on an ongoing basis.